Isometrics
Exercises Review

Paul O’Brien’s "7 Seconds To A Perfect Body"

I’ve recently been investigating isometrics exercises in my
seemingly constant quest to find new and interesting bodyweight
workouts, . I’ve read books by Charles Atlas and
others, and
I’m continuing to learn more about this almost lost
discipline.
Recently I purchased an eBook of isometrics exercises by Paul
O’Brien entitled “7
Seconds To A Perfect Body”. What did I
think of it? Read on …

The Positives

I’ve read this ebook from cover to cover, and it’s
clear
that Paul really knows his stuff. The exercises are excellent and the
ebook is well laid out with plenty of illustrations. This is in
contrast to some other books I’ve read which often lack
pictures
or diagrams.

Shows the Theories Behind the
Exercises

Paul goes into great detail about how isometrics exercises work all 4
of the muscle fibers in the human body. Weight Lifting does not do
this. In addition, the act of weight lifting restricts the flow of
blood to the capillaries of the muscle being worked. I was not aware of
this, but it makes sense to me.

Why You DO What You DO

Paul also goes into great detail about the individual muscles work in
your body, and why and how the exercises he teaches works them.
I’ve never seen another book on fitness go into this kind of
detail, but it makes sense to do so, particularly for isometrics
exercises. One of the things that makes these exercises so effective is
that you are really using YOUR
MIND for maximum results. This is why it’s
critical to understand exactly how your muscles are laid out BEFORE you begin the
exercises. Paul tells a story how the great old time strongman MAXICK came to this
conclusion on how
important it was to work the mind WITH the body.

MAXICK and the
Journeyman

MAXICK was observing a journeyman filing some metal one day. Although
his arms and deltoids were CONSTANTLY being worked, he noticed that
these were this man’s least developed body parts. How could
this
be? Maxick came to the conclusion that it was because the journeyman
was always concentrating his energies on the task at hand, not on
working his muscles. By doing so, he was limiting their development. In
order to really work those muscles, you need to focus your mind on them
as you exercise.

7 Seconds

Another observation Maxick made, and it ties into Paul’s
program,
is that even if the journeyman tried to concentrate on his muscles, it
wouldn’t help him that much in terms of physical development.
The
reason for this is that the human brain can only give 100% attention to
a task for a very short time. This is why performing Paul’s
isometrics exercises for 7 seconds can be so effective. For those 7
seconds, you are able to focus YOUR MIND
and therefore YOUR
BODY on the task at hand for maximum results. This is one
of the real secrets of this isometrics exercises program.

The Importance of Neck Development

I also really like how Paul stresses neck development in his isometrics
exercises course. Hardly anyone save wrestlers and martial artists
exercise their neck in anyway. However, a strong neck is critical to
good health. Think of this from an evolutionary standpoint. Our spines
were developed when we were walking on all fours. It is meant to
distribute weight evenly all along it’s length. When we
started
walking upright, the weight is no longer distributed evenly. We now
resemble awkward walking flagpoles with big weights (our heads) on top.
Anything we can do to make our backs and necks stronger helps to keep
that weight stable.

Advantages of
a having a Strong Neck

When you follow Paul’s simple isometrics exercises for the
neck, these are some of the health benefits you can gain:

Improve blood flow to the brain

Can help reduce tension headaches and migraines

Improve your posture and energy levels

Look younger and sleep better

One last point
on Neck Training

I know I’m getting a little off topic here, but
Paul’s book
really got me thinking. If you want to stay young and healthy, training
your neck is critical. “Where
your head goes your body will follow”
is a saying I came across in the book. This is so true. What happens to
so many people is that as they age, their heads start to droop forward
due to weak necks. This leads to slumped
shoulders, curved backs, and poor posture.
If you want to avoid this, exercising your neck is the way to go. The
exercises that Paul shows for this are uniformly excellent.

Old Time History

Paul also seems to be a bit of an amateur historian when it comes to
isometrics exercises and the people who did them. He tells some great
stories of the amazing feats of strength many old timers were able to
achieve. I found these to be both entertaining and inspiring. Maybe you
never plan to break out of prison by bending your own prison bars as
Alexander Zass did, but it still shows you
what’s possible with this kind of training.

Bonus’s
Galore

Besides "7 Seconds To A Perfect Body",
Paul also throws in some great classic texts on isometrics exercises
from some of these fitness pioneers. These include the following:

How to exercise without moving a muscle by Vic
O’beck

Dynaflex by Mike Marvel

Muscle Control by Maxick (a classic work, btw)

Physiology of Strength by Theodor
Hettinger

The Maxick book itself is a real find. Many years ago I got involved
with a bidding war with someone on eBay for an original copy of this
book. The bidding get as high as $145 before I gave up. It’s
nice
to finally get the book here in digital format at any rate

A Secret Bonus?

One last thing you get that Paul doesn’t mention on his site
is
some free video’s of him performing some of the exercises.
He’s planning on releasing a video course at some point, and
this
is kind of a preview of that. Seeing the exercises performed is a big
help, and I would encourage him to finish this work.

The Negatives

All in all, I’m a big believer in this course. Is it perfect
though? Not quite. Here are some things I didn’t like about
it.

Typos Typos Typos

This is a minor point, but it annoyed me. There were many typos in the
first few chapters of this book. Paul’s not an English
Teacher,
and I think he discovered how to use Spell Check later on, but
it’s still annoying.

Only for
PC’s, Not MAC

In order to cut down on Piracy, this eBook
actually comes in the form of a .exe file. You run it on a PC, and then
enter a security code to unlock it. I had no problem with this system.
However, you can’t use it on a MAC. Be aware of that.

7 Books in ONE - Good and Bad ...

As I was reading the book, I felt it lacked a certain unity. Some ideas
just seemed to be repeated for no reason. It felt like 7 books put
together, rather than one seamless work. Well, turns out I was right.
Originally, this one book was originally 7 books. Paul put them all
together in one book. In a way this makes it a great deal, but I still
feel the ebook would benefit from a rewrite to make it feel more
“whole”. Maybe this is just the editor in me
talking, but
it’s what I thought.

Printing the
Book is a Pain

Whenever I get an ebook that I’m planning on using, I often
print
it out. It’s just me, but I like to have a hard copy of the
book.
When you try and print out this book of isometrics
exercises,
however, you will find it clocks in at over 200 pages! This is more
than I bargained for. Plus, when it prints out, the chapters are not
always printed in order. I’m not sure why this is. Maybe it
has
something to do with Vista. Anyway, I found it to be a pain. If
you’re like me, I would recommend you print out only those
chapters that contain the exercises. Printing out the history and the
theory is not really necessary. You’ll save a lot of paper
and
ink this way.